Heathers

“I think they made a mistake pushing the show back because of the Parkland shooting,” said Daniel Waters, who wrote the 1988 cult film but has no involvement on the Paramount Network TV series. “When it comes to dark comedy, you just have to throw it out there and have people chew on it and argue about it.”

The Florida school shooting that Paramount Network cited today in delaying the Heathers TV series from its March 7 premiere didn't stop the cable channel from releasing the pilot online one week after the massacre. Still, subsequent episodes plan to tackle gun violence. "But even if we take the network’s statement at face value," says Marissa Martinelli, "it is still making a mistake to postpone the series, because the way things stand, there will never be a right time to air an episode about gun violence. Networks have been doing this dance for ages—Buffy the Vampire Slayerput off an episode involving a 'schoolyard massacre' a week after Columbine in 1999—but it’s a very silly dance to do. Guns kill more than 15,000 Americans each year, and in 2018 alone, there have been 35 mass shootings. It’s not even March yet. At that rate, unless lawmakers take meaningful, drastic action, there is simply no reason to believe that there won’t be another mass shooting, and another reason to postpone Heathers again, in April or June or December or whenever they decide the time is right. "

The pitch-black comedy based on the 1988 cult film was originally scheduled to premiere March 7, three weeks after the Parkland high school shooting. A new premiere date hasn't been announced. “Paramount Network’s original series Heather is a satirical comedy that takes creative risks in dealing with many of society’s most challenging subjects ranging from personal identity to race and socio-economic status to gun violence,” Paramount Network said in a statement. “While we stand firmly behind the show, in light of the recent tragic events in Florida and out of respect for the victims, their families and loved ones, we feel the right thing to do is delay the premiere until later this year.” The show's pilot episode was made available on iTunes and on demand last week.

Despite fearing the worst, Daniel Waters wrote "I liked it!" after watching the the Paramount Network remake of his cult classic movie. "Okay, Episode 1 is the Mad Libs parlor game version of the movie we feared...but it ends well," he wrote on Facebook. "The further the show moves away from the film, the better." Meanwhile, Jason Micallef, creator of the Heathers TV series, responded to the criticism on Twitter reacting to the backlash, tweeting "my show is definitely doing something right." He added in a tweet with a screenshot of Waters' Facebook post: "Thanks for all the love for #Heathers and now that our God himself has spoken, the haters can go crawl back into their quarries."

"If you believe that kids these days are fragile 'snowflakes,' that political correctness is running amok, and that LGBT people are now society’s true bullies, this new Heathers is the show for you," Samantha Allen says of the premiere episode, which Paramount Network released online this week. "The premiere of the rebooted cult classic, now airing for free online, takes place in a universe—clearly a fictional one—where the football team is oppressed and yesteryear’s fat, queer, and black victims now rule the school with manicured fists. The show feels like it was written for aging Fox News viewers who get angry about people’s gender pronouns—which is odd because it’s clearly being marketed to a young and therefore progressive-leaning audience who may not remember the 1988 original. The original Heathers were a group of croquet-playing WASPy socialites; the new Heathers are comprised of a plus-size girl, a genderqueer student, and a black girl. In other words, this is less a reboot and more an intentional inversion of the original concept, built on the premise that the bullied have since become the bullies."